XO Kitty's Anna Cathcart reveals the truth behind Kitty's feelings for Min-ho (2024)

Rainbow Crew is an ongoing interview series that celebrates the best LGBTQ+ representation on screen. Each instalment showcases talent working on both sides of the camera, including queer creatives and allies to the community.

Next up, we're speaking to XO Kitty star Anna Cathcart.

Anna Cathcart's Kitty made somewhat of an impression when she first bounced on the screen with all the energetic spring of a rubber ball.

"My name is Katherine Song Covey. Kitty to my friends. You can call me Katherine," she told To All the Boys heartthrob Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo) in the first movie.

She was direct, upfront and authoritative though her steely demeanour quickly melted to reveal the more joyous side of Kitty, because despite her impressive sharpness, she was also warm-hearted through and through. Just don't mess with her.

Since then there has been a lot of growing up on both sides of the fence, for Anna and her onscreen counterpart too, one that has allowed her to carry the To All the Boys franchise on her own shoulders in the spinoff series XO Kitty.

Like Anna embarking on her first year of college to study sociology and creative writing while filming the spinoff, Kitty also embarks on a scholastic adventure at the fictional boarding school KISS in Korea.

The character ends up 5,000 miles away from home to be reunited with her long-lost boyfriend Dae (Choi Min-young), and to also learn more about her late mother who attended years before.

Thankfully Anna had the backing of her To All the Boys family as she took over from Lara-Jean actress Lana Condor in the lead role for their universe.

"Everyone was so supportive. I was so lucky to have them when the show was first announced," Anna explained.

"Before I was shooting, I was talking to some of them, and they were all providing advice, or just providing support, and saying that they're so proud. Which honestly means so much.

"I started working on the first movie when I had just turned 14. I had all of them as role models, and looked up to them so immensely, and had them as big brothers and big sisters. So to still have that support at this stage, means a lot."

Having said goodbye to the role of Kitty in 2021 with the release of the last film, Anna describes the reunion with her on-screen self in the most appropriate way.

"I've been saying it feels like seeing an old friend that you know well but that you also haven't seen in many years. So you need to relearn them, and re-meet them.

"It's my favourite way to sum it up, because, honestly, there were things I wanted to keep from the Kitty that we know, and that came from the movies."

No doubt her bubbly yet fiery nature was among the many Kitty-isms that Anna wanted to preserve for her version of Kitty 2.0. But despite wanting to safeguard the things that make Kitty special, she was keen to show the maturation of her character.

"It's been many years, and she's in high school now, and we're seeing brand new dynamics. So finding those little things was really fun and, honestly, it was exciting to have the opportunity to come back to a character that I love so much."

For a character whose confidence and self-assuredness were so deeply rooted in her DNA, Kitty's KISS journey doesn't just knock the wind out of her sails, it tears through them when he discovers that the love of her life has a girlfriend, Yuri (Gia Kim).

"For Kitty, she definitely has that big realisation of like, '[romance and love] was part of who I was. I knew what this was. This was my territory,' and now things are not as expected."

There's more to the situation than initially meets the eye, and while things do eventually get cleared up Kitty's rocky experience leaves her a little battered.

"By the end of the season, [her confidence is] definitely not as strong.

"She feels very unsure about a lot of things. But that's kind of what she's learning, that that's OK, and it's a part of growing up."

Her insecurities towards the end of the series are totally justifiable.

Fans who have watched (and re-watched, and re-watched) the season have seen Kitty go from being head over heels for Dae, to being crushed, to falling for Yuri.

Yes, Dae's sort-of-ex-girlfriend (our explainer will clear up any confusion).

The shock over her overwhelming feelings for Yuri speaks to the challenges people experience when trying to understand their queer identity.

There are several reasons that Anna regards the scene she shares with her on-screen dad Dr Covey (John Corbett), in which she breaks down over her confusing feelings, as "one of my favourite scenes in the whole series," and that indicates how layered it is.

"I really loved and appreciated that scene. I was really excited when I first read it that that was how we were going to portray it.

"I agree with what you said, that often it's not a father-daughter conversation that we see all the time in media, which is really cool."

Beyond the uniqueness of this father-daughter interaction about sexuality, Anna also hopes that this "really powerful scene" will have a lasting, positive impact for queer individuals.

"I think it's very comforting to see somebody who doesn't have the answer. It's not like she's finding herself, and she finds it; she's still finding it, and it's a process.

"She doesn't have to attach herself to a label right away. When she talks to her father, he's very accepting. I hope parents can see that, and I hope kids can see that. I hope it opens conversations, and opens positive mindsets, because it was very special. So it was really cool to have that portrayed in her journey."

While Kitty's dad swooped in, in the warm embracing Covey-family way, Anna makes mention of the fact that this ideal experience is not always a reality for everyone, and so emphasises the importance of emotional self-care.

"I think the pressure of figuring it all out right now is something that can feel so prominent, and feel so big, and you must get there," she explains.

"People are all at different stages of their journeys. It looks different for everybody, just be kind to yourself, and give yourself time and space. I think it's a good reminder for so many things in life."

Kitty's chaotic venture into love does have the character, and the actress herself, reassessing Lara-Jean's insecurities with a lot more compassion.

"There are moments in this season where she's like, 'Oh my God, I'm turning nostalgic." Or she's like, "Oh my God, this is what I used to tell [Lara-Jean] about.'

"I have an older sister, and there are things like that with us, too, where I will now want to do something, or now say something, and she's like, 'You used to attack me for that. You used to make fun of me for that. And now you're doing that.'

"You sort of [reach] that stage yourself and Kitty is definitely having her L-J parallel moments, where she's like, 'Oh my God, I used to think this was so stupid', or, 'I used to not understand it', or, 'I used to whatever' and she says, 'Now it's my turn.' And now she gets it. So I hope she can go back, and be like, 'Sorry, I love you for it.'

Kitty's spiralling love life enclosed in a K-drama/American fusion package has drawn in a crowd of viewers who have become besotted with the character.

Anna beamed as she recalled the crazy speed at which they not only binge-watched the entire series but flocked to social media to create adoring content.

"It was really crazy and cool to watch. One day after it came out, there were already tons of edits about everything, and so many comments, and people being like, 'I've already watched the whole season twice.'

"I'm like: how is that possible? It just came out!"

She doesn't take their excited support lightly though – in fact, she admits to being extremely moved by their love and totally and completely hooked on their posts.

"It's incredible dedication from viewers, and that means so, so much, and it's crazy to see that people are connecting with it, and are so passionate about it, and are so engaged in all of it.

"I will totally just go down a rabbit hole, and watch all the edits on TikTok, and seeing everybody's thoughts. It's so fascinating to finally get to share it with people, and see their reactions," she tells me.

"It's like: I'm so self-centred – I'm literally watching edits of myself but I love seeing what they care about, and what viewers are noticing."

One theme that seems to be thrumming through the social ether is the passionate shipping of Kitty and one love interest in particular.

Not Yuri her surprise crush, nor Dae who she flew to the other side of the world to be with. It is, however, his best friend Min-ho (Sang Heon Lee).

Min-ho declared his love for Kitty in the season finale, which is not overly surprising – he'd been pulling her metaphorical pigtails all season.

What was a shock was the small hint of a smile from Kitty after the sweeping love declaration and those keenly observant fans have not let it go ever since.

"Everyone is picking that up!" she says, clearly thrilled by their close attention.

"It makes me so happy that people notice the details. I've literally seen people zoom in on her emotion, and be like, 'She smiled!'"

The internet has gone crazy trying to decipher the meaning behind Kitty's smile.

With huge smiles herself, Anna sets the record straight – and boy, did a bunch of us get it wrong.

"I think, pretty honestly, it's smiling like: 'What the heck is happening?' And the realisation that, truly, so many possibilities are being opened right now. Doors are being closed, opened, cracked, half-open – so many things are shifting.

"I think that's just her looking forward to this wild next chapter, and she's getting on the plane to go home, and she's like, 'That did not just happen.' So I feel like, at the moment, that is what her smile is about."

Min-ho and Kitty shippers shouldn't feel too disappointed though as Anna makes clear that anything is possible.

"[Kitty] could know something I don't," she explains.

The same can be said for her cautiously optimistic approach to the future of the show itself.

"There's a chance for everything," she tells us, and for the sake of fans everywhere desperately hankering for the clearing up of all those loose threads, we hope that's true.

All episodes of XO Kitty season one are available to watch now on Netflix. The To All The Boys trilogy is also available to stream on Netflix.